French Quiz - March 2018

1Which French city’s equivalent of the Champs-Elysées is a kilometre-long boulevard called ‘La Canebière’, built in accordance with wishes ex-pressed by King Louis XIV in the 1660s?

2Which song was dedicated in 1959 by its singer to the French Foreign Legion, and is routinely sung by them when on parade?

3Dominated by one of west Africa’s most significant rivers, what was the former name (in English) of Burkina Faso, which gained independence from France in August 1960?

4What is the main type of ingredient in the garlic-flavoured provençale stew known as a ‘bourride’?

5The world’s least frequently published newspaper, the satirical La Bougie du Sapeur, (‘The Soldier’s Candle’), has appeared only once every four years since 1980, always on which date?

6In the 1820s, for use in what type of building did physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel originally develop his ridge and-groove lantern lenses, some of which could be over eight feet tall?

7Although all were born in other countries, Michel Théato (1900), Boughera El Ouafi (1928) and Alain Mimoun (1956) all won gold medals for France in which classic Olympic event?

8If the French word for a branch or twig is ‘un rameau’, which day of the Christian calendar is known in France as ‘Dimanche des Rameaux’?

9Popular the world over, what distinctively muscular all-white breed of cattle from eastern Burgundy is the most numerous native type in French agriculture?

10What name for a dingy pit-like room in a medieval castle is taken from the French verb ‘to forget’, since that is what often hap-pened to prisoners unfortunate enough to be left there?

11Who touched down at Le Bourget airport in Paris on May 21st, 1927, after a flight which had lasted over 33 hours?

12Which port city in French colonial North Africa is the setting for Albert Camus’s 1947 novel La Peste, (‘Plague’)?

13At almost 3300 metres, the Grand Vignemale, also known as ‘Pique Longue’, is the highest French summit in which mountain range?

14What symbol of everlasting love did Parisian authorities ban from being attached to its bridges in 2015, following the collapse of a section of the pedestrian Pont des Arts, which crosses the Seine?

15Henri Charrière, convicted of murder in 1931 and sent to a penal colony in French Guiana, published a best-selling memoir in 1969 under what title?

16Which breed of curly-haired white toy dog originating from the Mediterranean, has a two-word French name also used in English, but generally with an unaccented final letter?

17Intertwining the lives of three of the key players in the French Revolution, the 1992 novel A Place of Greater Safety is a work by which two-time Booker Prize-winning author?

18In 2006, Bastien Ripoll became the first Frenchman to compete in what annual event, achieving victory alongside four British, two Canadian and two American team-mates?

19What is the usual English four-letter acronym for the organisation commonly referred to in the French Press as EIIL, and since 2014 as Daech?

20What gearing system for bicycles dependent on a series of different-sized sprockets, has a French name which describes the action of moving the drive chain from one sprocket to another??

Take the first letter from the answers to the questions indicated below and rearrange the letters to spell out the surname of a famous Frenchman. When a person is the answer, use the first letter of their surname.